Advertise on podcast: Groundwork: Biblical Foundations for Life

Many believers in all seasons of life understand what it feels like to fervently pray for the desires of their hearts. One listener wrote to us about the sorrow he endured due to childlessness despite his prayers, and the isolation and stigma he experienced in church as a result. He asked us to talk more about what it means when God says no to our prayers. This is a sensitive topic, but important to discuss, and we’re grateful to him for bringing it to our attention. Sharing our experiences and testimonies gives hope to others in similar situations. It calls for accountability in our words and actions. Together, let’s dig into Scripture for biblical insight and comfort as we discuss the pain and struggle of unanswered prayer in the lives of individual believers and in the community of faith.

Listeners like you send us their questions about theology and faith as they study God’s Word. Was Judas saved even though he betrayed Jesus? How do I share my faith with non-believers? What if people I love are resistant to hearing about Jesus? How should I pray for people who are unsaved? Join us as we dig into Scripture to discuss what we know about Judas, learn about the Great Commission Jesus gave us, evangelism, and intercessory prayer for non-believers.

As humans, we are uniquely aware of time. We talk about the passing of time, we think about the end of time, and we often wish for more time. Sometimes it feels like time is fleeting and sometimes feels like time drags on. Chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes contains one of the book’s most well-known passages. The Teacher opens “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” He then goes on to share a well-known list of life’s seasons. He  calls time a burden, but also says God has “set eternity in the human heart.” Join us as we discuss the association between wisdom and recognizing the seasons of life, as we seek to understand what it means to have eternity in our hearts, and as we receive the Teacher’s encouragement and advice for finding hope and meaning in life.

Do you find joy and satisfaction in your work? Or do you consider work a necessary evil? Many of us spend huge portions of our life working, sometimes doing paid work, other times unpaid. You might say that work is a common theme in each of our lives. It’s also a common theme in the book of Ecclesiastes. In his writings, the Teacher repeatedly comes to the conclusion that work, labor, and toil are meaningless. But is it really that simple? If we carefully study the Teacher’s conclusions, we’ll discover some insightful wisdom about work and our identity, about why our motivation for work matters, about work/life balance, and about the secret for finding joy and satisfaction in our work.

Does life ever feel repetitive, monotonous? Like day in, day out your struggles are the same, your joys seem fleeting, and nothing ever changes. The Teacher in Ecclesiastes echoed this very sentiment. Throughout the book, we repeatedly read his refrain, “Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” He considers wisdom, knowledge, and pleasure and determines that all of these are meaningless pursuits in life, they will not provide any lasting value. Join us as we examine what the Teacher means by declaring everything meaningless and discover what we can learn about our life of faith and where we can find value, meaning, and hope in life in the midst of, and in spite of, the Teacher’s grim pronouncement.

Hebrews shows us why we should remain faithful to Jesus and how to cultivate a faith that endures. Now, as Hebrews concludes, the author shows us how to live and the kind of people we should be when our confidence is in Christ alone. Learn about God’s loving discipline, the unshakable kingdom we’ve received through Christ, and the everyday faithfulness that marks God’s people on their path of discipleship.

How do we cultivate a lasting faith? The author of Hebrews calls believers to stay close to Jesus, remaining faithful in all circumstances. After summarizing Christ’s supremacy in all things, the author launches into one of the most famous passages in Hebrews, a whole chapter dedicated to those who “by faith” persevered through life’s tough challenges. Together, let’s learn why community and the testimony of fellow believers are essential for cultivating a faith that endures through the difficult seasons in life.

Humans are sinful; therefore, the feeling of guilt is inevitable. Guilt has weight; it becomes a burden we struggle under even after we know we’ve been forgiven. The author of Hebrews offers weary believers reassurance that God has provided the means to deal with our guilt once and for all. Let’s study what Hebrews teaches us about the new covenant, the meaning of the tabernacle, the sacrificial system in Israel’s worship, and how they ultimately pointed to Christ. Together, we’ll discover how this relates to our lives today and invites us to draw near to Jesus Christ.

Do you ever feel alone, like no one understands what you’re going through? The author of Hebrews encourages us to stay close to Jesus in these moments. To help us understand the extent to which Jesus understands, cares about, and meets our needs, Hebrews draws a connection between Jesus Christ and the Old Testament high priest, Melchizedek. Join us as we discuss the role of a high priest, discover who Melchizedek was, and see why Jesus really is our ultimate high priest. Together, let’s explore what that means for our relationship with God and our daily lives.

Life is full of many seasons. Some of these seasons are difficult, making us feel weary and under pressure. In those seasons, the author of Hebrews urges us to hear God’s voice and resist the temptation to drift away from our faith, returning to what’s comfortable and forgetting all God has done for us. Together, we’ll study the author’s warning to the early Christians, then discover how history and community can help us hear God’s voice, keep us securely anchored in our faith when we’re tempted to drift, and find God’s promised Sabbath rest.

Hebrews begins by showing us Jesus is God’s final word, fully divine and fully human. Written to Jewish Christians in the early church, Hebrews addressed their discouragement in the face of persecution. It warned them against drifting away from their faith, because it was in Jesus and his gospel that they had life. Today, we continue to discover the comfort and encouragement that Hebrews offers weary believers and learn to trust the Son who reveals God and comes near to help us.

We all experience the reality of death. Far too often, it is the painful loss of a loved one. Our age or a medical diagnosis might also cause us to face the inevitability of our own death. These emotionally heavy times leave us longing for comfort and asking big questions. What happens after we die? Is there an afterlife? Where do our souls go while we’re waiting for Jesus to return? Together, let’s study what the Bible teaches about life after death and receive the deep comfort God’s Word provides.

We’re all familiar with the concept of heaven as a place people go after they die. Many Christian hymns and songs talk about heaven. Faithful believers talk about longing to go to heaven. Movies, books, cartoons, and other art forms attempt to visualize heaven. But what is heaven according to the Bible? Where is it? What does it look like? Let’s explore scripture to discover what the Bible does, and does not, teach us about heaven.

As we study the closing chapters of 1 Samuel, we read about David’s encounter with Nabal and Abigail, Saul’s desperate decision to visit a medium, and finally, Saul’s tragic death. In these accounts, we see both Saul's and David’s imperfections, yet a striking difference in their attitudes toward God. These final chapters reaffirm what the whole book of 1 Samuel has shown us: God is willing and able to work through flawed people, but the condition of our hearts matters greatly.

God anointed Saul as the first King of Israel. Yet, his leadership of Israel was inconsistent. In 1 Samuel, he waffled back and forth between loving and hating David, the leader of his armies, and unbeknownst to him, the one God chose to be Israel’s next king. In the ups and downs in Saul’s life, we witness firsthand the broken shalom that results when the deadly sin of envy grips our hearts. We also see God’s sovereignty and how he continues to work in the lives of his people even in difficult circumstances.